Small of Back vs Hips For Weight Distribution

Thanks for the video – very nice!!! The packs look beautiful!

I think the intention is always to make the pack sit there…..but, at least for me, it will start slipping down after some time unless I tighten the belt a lot.

HMG actually told me I should not be reshaping the stays :-)

I like to have my pack ride higher and above my hips in the small of my back. I had Dan Ransom make some of his aluminum tube stays that are very stiff and cannot be bent with your hands. They have quite a bit of curve like in the video. I switched them into my SWD Wendigo pack and they are about 1/2 inch too long. On my last trip, it was driving my crazy because the bottom of the pack was sitting a little too low and I kept having to pull it up, which doesn’t happen with the regular stays.

That curved in that part of the back is there to act like a spring while you walk…. I would be concerned about a pack fitting into that curve and applying weight would inhibit the spine from doing what it is designed to do. But… every body is different… I would not be surprised if some people love the pack and some find it very uncomfortable. What makes sense to your brain and feels good at first fitting, may be miserable after a long day of hiking. Personally, I really like the zPacks (and Ospry) designs where here the packs stays are arched such that part of the weight cantilevers against the small or your back… I find that design takes some of the pressure off of my hips and works very well for me. But… I have had friends love and other friends hate that… every body is different.

Based on 25 years experience with McHale packs, I’d say not the small of the back, but rather have the load rest on the sacrum.

To affect this, the hipbelt needs to position independently of the lumbar pad (say +/- 1/2”) to account for anatomical differences.

Before this I had constant problems with slippage and chafing on my protruding iliac crest “hipbones”.

Steve – did Mchale fit your backpack to sit on sacrum? or you just experimented and realized that hip belt slips around illiac crest – therefore let it slip down to the point where it slips no more – which happens to the sacrum. Looking at the sacrum – it is outward curve of the butt after the lumbar – which means your hip belt is well below the illiac crest???? Does it not impede your walking? can you walk fast with the hip belt on the sacrum?

For me as well – all backpacks slip and then no more once it sits on the sacrum as the outward bulge of the butt prevents further slippage….but, I don’t find it very comfortable though.

Here is a good video showing the sacrum and the curve of the sacrum.

there sure are a lot of webbing and buckles on the hill people gear pack

like on the hipbelt he put in extra ladderlocks rather than just using the buckles

I prefer a more minimalist approach, but that’s just me

I shouldn’t be critical.  If it works for anyone, that’s great.

“I had Dan Ransom make some of his aluminum tube stays that are very stiff and cannot be bent with your hands. ”

Some day someone will re-introduce a light weight external frame pack. Three generations or so of backpackers have never used one, or anyway a decent external.

I like my pack belt at the top of the Illiac crest too. I need the weight off my shoulders and onto my hips and legs. Leg muscles are something like ten times more powerful than shoulder and back muscles. so, as they used to say when fitting an external frame pack, “weight in the pack; pack on the hips”. Of course, adjustments could be made, as with internal frame packs.

I’m interested in this discussion because I have also only just gone with what felt comfortable. I was told years ago by a salesman at REI that the waist belt should be at the level of my navel, which is three inches higher than my iliac crest. Wearing it that way put the entire weight of the pack on saggy fat (or robust abs if that had been the case!). Our bodies are definitely not all the same.

With the belt coming at my hips, where I like it, the weight is supported by the hips, but the contents of the pack are centered on the small of my back and also between the shoulder blades. At the top is light stuff like a puffy, or the day’s food (with most of the food down lower in a canister).

I fear the day when my pack breaks and I have to find something new. It’s about as perfect as can be right now. Granite Gear Blaze.

I keep my climbing hardware in a late 80’s Mountainsmith pack. The hipbelt is a whole system designed to put nearly all of the weight on your hips. The belt panel has no padding, just four adjustable straps to the buckle let you tweak to the shape of your hips. After that, you have four more load-lifter-like straps to pull the plastic frame sheet and pack body forward and down so that it contacts your whole lower back. There is a slightly grippy panel in the middle of the belt that sits on the sacrum, that ensures that it doesn’t shift, as the belt is sewn to the pack fairly near to the middle and moves slightly with your hips. A lot of MS packs had that design at the time.

I don’t go trad climbing as much as I used to, but I’m always surprised and pleased how well it handles 50# or so of gear, rope and water for short, steep approaches. The whole hipbelt system does keep the bulk of the weight off of my shoulders, but boy is it sweaty. Glad the current packs are built for ventilation.